The political and social dynamics of American Indian sacred sites and basic human rights protections within the contemporary U.S. are constantly evolving. This panel, including various legal scholars, community leaders, and activists, will explore issues of human rights, self-determination, sovereignty, and potential International legal remedies in order to better understand the contemporary realities of misunderstanding, lack of social justice, U.S. constructed hierarchies of economic and political inequality, and overall legacies of colonialism.

Keynote Speaker at 3:00pm – 4:30pm

• Rebecca Tsosie, Regents Professor of Law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law with the Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy (IPLP) Program and Special Advisor to the Vice Provost for Diversity and Inclusion for the University of Arizona. She has extensive experience working with tribal communities across Indian Country and currently serves as appellate judge for the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation’s Supreme Court and San Carlos Apache Tribe’s Court of Appeals.

Panel Discussion at 4:45pm – 6:30pm

• Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Professor of Law at Michigan State University College of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center. He sits as the Chief Justice of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians Supreme Court and also sits as an appellate judge for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians, the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, the Hoopa Valley Tribe, the Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi Indians, and the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska. He is a member of the Grand Traverse Band, located in Peshawbestown, Michigan.
• Wendsler Nosie Sr., Activist, Founder of the organization Apache Stronghold, and Councilman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
• Nizhoni Pike, youth activist, part of Apache Stronghold.

A CSREA Faculty Grant Event. Organized by Nicholas Laluk, Postdoctoral Fellow with CSREA and the Department of Anthropology.

Cosponsored by the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, Native American and Indigenous Studies, and the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology.